He Should Have Known
by Esca Madeline
Summary: Drabble...kind of. Jimmy spends one afternoon wondering why he never thought of Gary as a threat until it was too late.


Disclaimer: Rockstar owns all the rights to Bully.

A/N: Spoilers ahead if you have not finished the game. You have been warned.

This is a sort of companion piece to my other fic, _Clockwork_. I'd recommend reading that before reading this story.

**Episode: He Should Have Known**

Jimmy had a "special" history with the tree overlooking the football field.

No, it wasn't _that_ kind of "special." The tree was unique to him in a way that it was a sort of semi-private sanctuary. Heck, this tree had saved his life on more than one occasion during his first year at Bullworth Academy—when the Jocks had been in their We-Hate-Jimmy-So-He-Must-Die phase, this tree had been one of his few means of escape. All he had to do was climb up to a high branch, take out his slingshot, and knockout the steroid-pumped buffoons with a few good hits to the backside and bottom.

He was always thankful for the fact that the Jocks had been too stupid to actually attempt to climb up the tree themselves. Had they possessed one more brain cell, they might have figured that out, but fortunately they were as dimwitted as earthworms.

That had been the case over a year ago. Now in his second year and in almost full control of the school and all its residents, one of Jimmy's current uses for the tree was to sit there in the afternoons and watch the cheerleaders kick their long, lovely legs high into the air as he masturbated to X-rated images in his sixteen-year-old mind. One time, the girls had had a _very_ energetic practice, which resulted in him having to jerk himself off about three times to calm himself down…before he proceeded to beating the crap out of Kirby, who had been watching Jimmy's dirty little acts with a look of surprise (and _perversity_, even!) on his face.

Huh. Maybe his history with the tree _was_ that kind of "special."

At any rate, ogling at the cheerleaders wasn't the reason he was up the tree today, even if there was a new addition to the group. (A fourteen-year-old Hispanic girl, Maria. Cute, well-developed, and a bit brazen. He'd have to have a private "chat" with her soon, and get to know her a little more...) He had already dated most of the girls on the squad, and he really wasn't in the mood to jerk off, even if he did catch a glimpse of Pinky doing the splits—_ack, focus_! Jimmy mentally smacked himself before he forcefully turned his gaze towards the bleachers, where a lone figure was sitting quietly.

"Gary," Jimmy muttered to himself.

He felt his lips twist into a bitter frown. That little psycho. That snake-in-the-grass. That manipulative, ass-licking _bastard_. How that prat ever convinced the judge to keep him in school was beyond Jimmy's comprehension. It made no sense! Gary had practically turned Bullworth into a battlefield! He should have been thrown in jail!

And yet, there he was, sitting on the bleachers.

He couldn't understand why he felt this pissed towards Gary. He had been laughed at and ridiculed nearly all of his life for countless things, some of which included his continuous expulsions, his mother's promiscuous ways, his refusal to trust people, his overall appearance, etc. He had faced a whole lot of crap from the Preps, the Nerds, the Greasers, and the Jocks during his first year here, but he had never asked the faction leaders _why_ they treated him the way they did.

It didn't really matter to him. "_Why_"wasn't really an important question while he was pounding their faces into the floor. However, even after he took over, he still never asked them why. But he figured that he didn't need to; he could pretty much guess their reasons for hating him.

Derby and his trust fund babies disliked him merely because he wasn't in their "social circle." Earnest was a puberty-smacked freak who deemed himself smarter than Jimmy, and looked down on him because he represented all that Earnest could never be—physically adept. In Johnny's case, Jimmy had to admit that he earned Johnny's wrath. Jimmy had sort-of-kind-of snuck around with Lola, who just happened to be Johnny's girlfriend. So of course, Jimmy understood why Johnny wanted him dead, even though Jimmy hadn't felt a drop of guilt about kissing Lola. Ted…honestly, Jimmy disliked the Jocks from the start. Always tackling him whenever he stepped _near_ the football field. What the fuck? He had been glad to take the illiterate sportsmen down, no questions asked.

And now, even if Derby, Earnest, Johnny, and Ted resented him and hated him for taking away their positions (which he was fairly sure they _did_, from what Petey told him), they couldn't do anything about it. They now had to play nice, and be polite and respectful towards one another. Even if they all despised him, they always acted civil to Jimmy, if only because they didn't want to get a beating from him and Russell. Unlike before, however, Jimmy kept the leaders at arm's length. He didn't want another betrayal like last time, even if Derby, Johnny, and Ted were all graduating this year. He had no idea how Ted managed to graduate, but that was one of life's many mysteries that would never be solved.

He owned the school. He owned the cliques. So why the hell was he so pissy about Gary?

_It's not that I care_. At least, that was what Jimmy kept telling himself. He didn't give a damn, he had no reason to. He told himself that he didn't care that the courts had allowed Gary to come back after a stay at Happy Volts Asylum. (Though he had been very, very angry that they did.) He told himself that he didn't care while he visited Gary in the Asylum almost every week, to check up on how he was doing. (He had only done that to see Gary's progress, so that he could ready himself and the school if Gary seemed well enough to return. He had once brought Petey along, but that proved to be a mistake.) He told himself that he didn't care when Gary finally returned before Christmas, and that the whole school made efforts to make the boy's life as miserable and as lonely as possible. (Though after three weeks of torture, Jimmy had finally told everyone to leave Gary alone and not to talk to him.)

He told himself that he didn't care.

But unlike the other people he had beaten up, he wanted to know why Gary did what he did. He had even asked.

_Why'd you do it, Gary?_

_Because I can! Because making little people like you and the MORONS who run this place eat out the palm of my hand feels GREAT!_

Feels great? What was so great about having complete chaos? What was so great about having everyone try to kill each other? And why ruin everything Jimmy worked for? WHY?

_But I never did anything to you!_

_You would have, if I had given you the chance! Face it, I'm SMARTER than you!_

"Real smart, moron," Jimmy muttered, as he shifted his weight on the branch. "Genius. You know what the funny thing is? If you hadn't tried to have Russell kill me…if you hadn't backstabbed me…we could have ended up running the school together…you, me, and Petey."

Jimmy stopped. Running the school. That had initially been Gary's idea. Jimmy never even _wanted_ the school when he first arrived—he had been more preoccupied with not blowing up the chemistry lab during his first couple of weeks. No, taking over the school had been Gary's idea, and as much as Jimmy hated to admit it, the first time he wanted to have the school was because of Gary's incessant prodding.

They had been friends. Sure, Gary mocked his intelligence at every turn during the short time they were friends, but he still considered the A.D.D. inflicted boy someone he could trust. Heck, Jimmy didn't even like Petey all that much until Gary betrayed him…but then again, people always said he had a bad sense of judgment. In his previous schools, all of Jimmy's friends had been jerks, even more so than Gary. Of course, none of them had ever tried to have him maimed for life by the school's largest bully, i.e. Russell.

_You happy now, jerk?_

_Ecstatic! I love watching two morons beat the crap out of each other…_

_Why'd you do it Gary? I thought we were friends!_

_Hahahahahaha! FRIENDS? You and me? I've taken dumps __that have more brains than you, **friend**. I'm taking over this school, and you're just a liability! See you around, moron!_

That…ass.

Now that he thought about it, Petey was actually his one true friend in this hellhole. Even though Petey was now Head Boy and Jimmy still voiced out that he thought Petey was dorky, the smaller boy still tagged along, trying to help. If Jimmy wanted to be alone, (and he often did) Petey otherwise checked up on what was going on with the other cliques for him. Now, all of the students treated Petey with the same faux respect as they showed Jimmy. Oh, the delicious irony.

Jimmy never needed to asked anyone, even his friends, why they did what they did. He knew why some chose to be friends with him; in Petey's case, it was because no other groups wanted him. As some famous person he didn't care about said, "Misery loves company." And he had to admit, both he and Petey were pretty miserable last year. The only thing he had to question was why Petey thought he, Jimmy, would make a good male stripper. Sure, Jimmy knew he was quite the ladies' man now, and that his body had a pretty lean build, but that comment, coming from another _guy_, was a bit odd.

In Gary's case…Jimmy had no idea why the psycho wanted to be friends with him in the first place.

"What're _you_ doing here, loser?"

Damon's deep, rough voice broke Jimmy out of his thoughts. He turned his gaze back towards the bleachers, and cursed foully when he saw the Jocks surrounding Gary, pushing him around. Damn it, didn't those muscleheads know when to follow orders?

Jimmy shot down the tree, scratching his hands on the rough bark and almost breaking his kneecaps when he landed hard on the ground. He shook off the pain in his legs and quickly ran towards the bleachers, where Gary was now being tackled to the ground, landing on his back with a pained grunt as Damon prepared to punch him…

"Cut it out!" Jimmy yelled, ripping through the crowd of Jocks to pull Damon off the other boy. He stepped between the crowd and Gary, who was lying on the ground, groaning in pain. Jimmy glared at the Jocks, who fell quiet and recoiled slightly, before he growled, "Damn it, I thought I made this clear! You are not to bully anyone weaker than yourselves! And I told you a hundred, no, a _thousand _times! DON'T GO NEAR GARY!"

Damon and the others cringed, before Dan said in a would-be tough voice, "But Jimmy, we thought he was going to try to start another riot again…and he was staring at the girls—"

"SHUT UP!"

Due to the commotion (more specifically, Jimmy's yelling) the cheerleaders stopped their practice and were now staring in his direction. While this caused some of the Jocks to look down and cough nervously, Jimmy ignored the girls and continued on. "I told you not to go near him. I told not to bother him, talk to him, look at him, or even breathe in his fucking direction! I told you to stay the fuck away from him!"

Silence.

"I'm telling Dr. Crabblesnitch on you!" a high-pitched male voice said suddenly. Jimmy and the Jocks turned and saw a small African male boy pointing a finger squarely at them, with a disapproving look on his face. Jimmy groaned—it was Sheldon, Crabblesnitch's kiss-ass boy. "You're not allowed to curse in the school! I'm telling, I'm telling, I'm telling, I'm—"

"Take care of him!" Jimmy snapped, his patience reaching its limit. "Take care of him, and I'll forget this ever happened. Got it, _ladies_?"

More silence, minus a few gasps and whispers from the cheerleaders. Then, a few submissive grunts from the Jocks.

"I can't HEAR you!"

"Yes boss!" the Jocks yelled, before they all ran towards Sheldon, who yelped and sprinted from the football field as fast as his skinny legs could carry him. Jimmy mumbled a few more profanities under his breath, before he turned to Gary, who was slowly getting to his feet.

"You shouldn't hang around here Gary," Jimmy said nonchalantly, effectively erasing all signs of emotion from his voice. "The Jocks are the ones who have trouble following the 'No Bullying' rule."

Gary snorted, before he once again took a seat on the bleachers and leaned back. "Cut the nice guy act, Hopkins. I know all about your attempts to cut me off from the rest of the school. It's kind of obvious, when the only ones who aren't avoiding you like the plague are the new kids."

"You brought this onto yourself, you jerk," Jimmy shot back, balling his hands into fists. "You're the one who turned the entire school into a miniature version of World War III. I told them to stay the hell away from you so that you don't cause any trouble…and so that you don't get your face smashed in by the Preps, Jocks, and Greasers."

"Oh really?" Gary raised a brow, his scarred one. "Then you _do_ care about me."

"Don't flatter yourself. I just don't want anyone to get expelled for beating you to a bloody pulp."

"Pfft. Whatever."

Jimmy glared at the other boy, before he sighed and took a seat next to him. If Gary wasn't going to move, he might as well keep an eye on the nut. "What're you doing here, anyway?"

Gary jerked his head towards the cheerleaders. "I'm just doing what normal sixteen-year-old boys do, Jimmy boy. I'm just watching the pretty girls jump around in skimpy outfits, fueling my filthy little fantasies like Petey does when he watches the boys on the swim team. It's like what you do when you're up in that tree, minus the masturbating." Gary smirked when Jimmy's jaw dropped, before he added sardonically, "I do all _my_ jerking off privately…but it seems that you just can't hold it in, can ya, Jimmy?"

Jimmy felt the heat rush to his face, before he snarled and grabbed Gary by his shirt collar. "You shut your mouth, you pervert!"

"Hey, I'm not the one cumming in public!" Gary retorted as he shoved Jimmy off of him. "Don't be so quick to judge, you little hypocrite."

"_Hypocrite_?"

"That's right!" Gary hissed, his eyes gleaming dangerously. "You and your talk of wanting peace between the cliques…you just wanted power! You wanted power just like I did…you wanted them in the palm of your hand, _just like I did_!"

"I'm NOTHING like you!" Jimmy yelled, his anger reaching its peak. "I'm not the one who has to take medication every six hours! I'm not the one who was locked up in the loony-hut!"

"No, but you're the one who came to the 'loony-hut' every week just to see me! Taking over the school, controlling all of the factions…they were all my ideas! You're just like me, Hopkins! Admit it!"

"Shut up!" Jimmy yelled, and shoved Gary so fiercely that he nearly tumbled off the bleachers. Before the boy could get up, Jimmy rose and stomped away from the football field, walking straight past the squealing Sheldon who was now unsuccessfully trying to get his rear end out of the garbage can.

He hated Gary. Every conversation they had, whether wanted or not, almost always ended with Jimmy leaving in a fouler mood. It was as if Gary was purposely _trying _to get him angry.

Why? What perverse pleasure did that psycho get from seeing him all riled up?

He was nothing like Gary. Even if they did both want to take over the school, Jimmy did it because he just wanted a little peace between the students. Gary did it simply because he wanted the power. Jimmy fought for order. Gary fought for chaos.

As Jimmy made his way back to the dorm, he remembered the first time he met Gary. Alone and unwilling to trust anyone, Jimmy had been more than a little taken aback when Gary had shown up out of nowhere, and had declared himself his friend. It had seemed…too easy. Most of his other friends, he had to prove he was better than them, or convincingly beat the sense of friendship into them. He should have known that something was up.

But then again…he wanted an easy friend. Someone who he could just trust, without having to work for it. It seemed so convenient.

_Relax, friend. You're all pent up. Go easy, or they'll put you on medication. They did it to me, and boy, it nearly sent me insane._

_That's fascinating. Now if you'll excuse me…_

_I said relax, **friend**!_

_Back off, man!_

He should have known.

_Listen to me tough guy. You've just arrived at one of the toughest schools in the country, and I'm offering to be your friend. Trust me, in a place like this, you're going to need friends…_

He should have known.

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**And…yeah. More drabbling. So…tell me your thoughts, please. I might try Petey next, but that depends on how this is received. Thanks in advance!**


End file.
